It is clear that evolution builds systems capable of performing
inductive inference - namely animal brains. However, there's another
link between evolution and induction - since both processes involve
using knowledge of the past to make predictions about the future.
This is perhaps not obvious, but if you think about it, every organism
represents a kind of prediction about the environmental conditions
it will encounter. The prediction is that the organism will encounter
an environment have allows it to reproduce.

Many have linked evolution and inductive inference in this way. For
example, in

Universal Darwinism

, John Campbell wrote:

The Darwinian process may be the only physical mechanism known to
science capable of accumulating knowledge from experience.
It performs inference and is a physical analogue of Bayesian updating.

Similarly, in Probably Approximately Correct, Leslie Valiant wrote:

To see evolution as a form of learning, we view the genome in evolution
as corresponding to the hypothesis in learning.

Philosophers of science who view scientific knowledge acquisition as a
form of Darwinian cultural evolution are also implicitly making the
same link between Darwinian evolution and inductive inference.

So: what is the link between evolution and inductive inference? I have a couple of comments to make:

The claim that Darwinian evolution is a type of learning
(made by Leslie Valiant in Probably Approximately Correct),
isn't really right. Darwinian evolution can also produce genetic drift -
which has little to do with learning. Evolution sometimes results
in knowledge acquisition and successful inferences. Other times it results
in progressive knowledge loss and extinction. It depends.

It is tempting to link fitness in evolution with scientific truth or
accurate knowledge. However, this association is inferior in practically
every way to linking fitness with popularity.
Phlogiston
and the aether
are popular mistaken ideas. They are kept around to help
show where not to tread. Death in evolution maps poorly on to
falsification in science.

The idea that Darwinian evolution underlies most systems that perform
inductive inference is important and under-appreciated. Those engaged
in creating machines that perform inductive inference tend to associate
Darwinism with genetic algorithms. Those are often seen as being just
one tool in a large toolkit. They are generally used in those cases
where the only thing you know about your solution space is a scalar
quality metric. Knowledge of
memetic algorithms paints
a rather different picture. In fact, evolutionary algorithms are fundamental.